Julius Springer opens a bookshop in Berlin on his 25th birthday. He publishes political and philosophical works and soon was in trouble with the censors.

1843

To get around the censors, Springer begins to publish literary and children's
works. He publishes Jeremias Gottfelf, founder of the German novel, and
translations of such works as Uncle Tom's Cabin and Ivanhoe.

The firms acquires Mathematische Annalen. The math jounals were edited by leading mathematicians of the time, such as Felix Klein, Albert Einstein, David Hilbert, and Otto Blumenthal.

1924

Springer Vienna founded.

1935

Ferdinand and Julius Springer were forced to leave the firm because of their Jewish descent. Tonjes Lange took over the company in trust and later became head of Springer. After the Second World War, he turned the company back over to the Springers, but remained a co-owner for the rest of his life.

1946

Julia and Ferdinand Springer rebuild the offices, almost destroyed during the war, in Heidelberg.

Post-WW II

The first book published by the restored company is Karl Jasper's Die
Idee der Universtat (The Idea of the University). It is banned in Berlin.

Bertelsmann AG purchases a majority share of the scientific Springer-Verlag for its corporate division Bertelsmann Fachinformation. Since then the publishing business was run under the name BertelsmannSpringer.

Springer Science + Business agrees with the National Library of the Netherlands to carry out long term archiving of Springer online publications.

2007

Cinven and Candover are reported to be putting Springer Science + Business up for sale, with a valuation expected to top € 2 billion. Cinven and Candover reportedly paid € 1.1 billion for Springer and € .6 billion for Kluwer in 2003.